Freefall 3: Death Ray Byproducts

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Bees, ants and some wasps, I will grant you, but the mother is alive and more or less in charge in those cases. Drive by adoption is not going to work, in my humble opinion, there isn't sufficient genetic connection.

Penguins have been known to practice adoption - it usually makes the news when its a same-sex male couple adopting some abandoned egg (which makes it obvious the egg cannot be from either partner). Adoption is a perfectly viable strategy. And of course, as Jasdoif points out, there are plenty of species - I know mostly of fish - where parents dying is also a valid strategy.

Grey Wolf